euro|topics - The last lap of the French presidential election campaign

Main focus of Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The last lap of the French presidential election campaign

The 9th of April marked the official start of the electoral campaign for the French presidential elections. This is an opportunity for the European press to take stock of the ballot two weeks away from the first round.

The Independent - United Kingdom

"France's presidential campaign seems to have been in progress for months, but it has only begun officially this week", comments the daily. "The pace now becomes frenetic, as candidates criss-cross the country. Posters, election broadcasts and mass rallies now all come into play. ...The two frontrunners offer a classic mainstream left-right duel, of the sort France has long experience. But both have flaws. ... Dissatisfaction with these two candidates opens the door a little further for François Bayrou and Jean-Marie Le Pen. ... This is the most keenly contested presidential election in France for a generation. It is also, arguably, the most crucial, with implications not just for France, but for bilateral relations, the future of Europe and the transatlantic alliance. We look forward to a contest that lives up to the billing." (10/04/2007)

Le Temps - Switzerland

The journalist Sylvain Besson considers that "the closer the French presidential campaign gets to its conclusion, the more unstable, muddled and unpredictable it seems. The polls, that set the proportion of voters who have not yet made their choice at 40 %, confirm impressions gathered among the electorate: six months of media hype, prime time TV programs and intensive 'pre-campaign' activity have not yet allowed public opinion to strike up a position. ... From now on, candidates are on an equal footing, or almost: Up until April 22nd, the amount of air time will be the same for each of the candidates and the distribution of posters and short films will smooth out the advantages that 'big' candidates had before. In 1995 and then in 2002, previous presidential election campaigns gave way to enormous surprises. Might things turn out otherwise this time?" (10/04/2007)

Les Echos - France

"Keen to please voters who are more and more trigger-happy with the remote control and less and less structured, the contestants sometimes seem like headless chickens running around, left, right and centre, throwing words about and agitating flags before speeding off towards other horizons. This is not exactly reassuring", considers the editorialist Françoise Fressoz. "But from behind the visible muddle, some positive signs are appearing. First of all, the problems that are irking French society are being named: crisis of national identity, crisis in the suburbs, a broken social ladder. We may mock this general catharsis, but we are better off with it taking place in the campaign rather than in the ballot box. It is always easier for a remedy to be found after a diagnosis." (10/04/2007)

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

Johannes Willms reports that none of the 12 presidential candidates can be sure of becoming the French people's "chosen one". "Not only the ups and downs of the poll results but also the rapidly changing themes in this campaign are an indication of how uncertain the outcome of the first round of the elections on April 22 still is. The discussion about national identity that flared up in late March has abated, as has the debate about domestic security triggered by the recent riots at Paris's Gare du Nord. The lack of a central theme is the predominant feature of this election campaign. On the one hand it is because of this lack that so many remain uncertain about who to vote for. On the other hand, this lack is leading candidates to try and outdo each other with promises which the voters know only too well cannot be fulfilled." (10/04/2007)

Der Standard - Austria

In an interview with Bert Rebhandl, French philosopher André Glucksmann, who supports conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, attributes the success of centrist candidate Francois Bayrou to the "idealisation of rural France by both the left and right". "The third man, candidate Francois Bayrou, presents himself as a 'tractor', as 'the deep France'. Bayrou constantly stresses his country roots. However, from Proust we have learned that life in a village is also about cruelty, gossip and control. Bayrou embodies a kind of nostalgia. Not the Cannes Film Festival but the Agricultural Salon is France's most important festival. In France historians have always been what philosophers are in Germany. Since Michelet we have been living with an imaginary past. Bayrou is thriving on it." (10/04/2007)

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, April 10, 2007

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